What stance should the left adopt with regard to Islam and a multicultural society? Dialogue or cold war? In an article published in the magazine Reset, Nadia Urbinati of Columbia University initiated a long discussion with the Princeton philosopher Michael Walzer, editor of Dissent. Urbinati evoked post-war categories, internal criticism from Eastern dissidents, and the rejection of ‘block thinking’. Walzer adopted a more sceptical stance on dialogue, saying that criticism of extremists must come from within their own ranks. It is a crucial issue for today’s world, on which the philosopher Charles Taylor has also shared his views.